26,000 US prisoners denied human rights in secret prisons and on ghost ships.

[JohnyCanuck]

Clive Stafford Smith, Reprieve's legal director, said: "They choose ships to try to keep their misconduct as far as possible from the prying eyes of the media and lawyers. We will eventually reunite these ghost prisoners with their legal rights.

"By its own admission, the US government is currently detaining at least 26,000 people without trial in secret prisons, and information suggests up to 80,000 have been 'through the system' since 2001. The US government must show a commitment to rights and basic humanity by immediately revealing who these people are, where they are, and what has been done to them."

According to research carried out by Reprieve, the US may have used as many as 17 ships as "floating prisons" since 2001. Detainees are interrogated aboard the vessels and then rendered to other, often undisclosed, locations, it is claimed.

SNIP

Reprieve believes prisoners may have also been held for interrogation on the USS Ashland and other ships in the Gulf of Aden during this time.

The Reprieve study includes the account of a prisoner released from Guantánamo Bay, who described a fellow inmate's story of detention on an amphibious assault ship. "One of my fellow prisoners in Guantánamo was at sea on an American ship with about 50 others before coming to Guantánamo ... he was in the cage next to me. He told me that there were about 50 other people on the ship. They were all closed off in the bottom of the ship. The prisoner commented to me that it was like something you see on TV. The people held on the ship were beaten even more severely than in Guantánamo." Reprive

This is your government.

This is your government cracked on power and greed and brutality.

26,000 prisoners on ghost ships. How many more?

http://www.neverinournames.com/showDiary.do?diaryId=2256

If you think they'll only ever use these methods on brown-skinned "ferriners" and real "terrists" who want to blow up airplanes and set off bombs in buildings, just give them a few more years. You might be surprised one day when you too are labeled a terrorist for just speaking out against the corruption and abuse of power that is being carried out in your name.

[liberalmuse]

1. I think it's safe to say that the Bush administration...

is guilty of much worse crimes against humanity than Sadam Hussein was hanged for. I'd like to see a similar fate for ANYONE who had anything to do with giving the go ahead to the Bush/Cheney torture policy.

[hedgehog]

2. 26,000 suspected terrorists? If there were 5 terrorists loose in this

country today, don't you think we'd have noticed them by now?


My kids can come up with about 10 good terrorist methods off the top of their heads in 5 minutes flat!

[petgoat]

7. Agreed. Soft targets abound. Terrorists seem to feel that non-action serves them. nt

[Clovis Sangrail]

3. 26,000? do you have a link to where this number comes from?

I looked at the link you provided, and also found a link at Democracy Now!
http://www.democracynow.org/2008/5/19/clive_stafford_smith
but there is no link to actual source material that backs the claim of 26,000 (27,000 at DN)

[Tab]

4. We have met the enemy and he is us. - Pogo

Sad and ironic that we have adopted some of the worst failings of the USSR that we stood in stark contrast to in the Cold War.

Citizens are "disappeared"
We are spied upon by our own government, phone calls and communications
The media is either controlled by, or heavily influenced by, the government
When we write something, we have to wonder if the government will approve, or if we will be "visited"
The government can find out what books we've taken from the library.
The rest of the world hates us.

I hate the America we've become. Not America itself, not the America I grew up with, but the America we've become.

I never thought the phrase "ugly American" would end up applying to the country itself. I thought it was reserved for insensitive tourists traveling abroad.

If Obama makes it into office, he's got a lot of fixin' to do.

[Hydra]

5. With a number that high

You can bet some of them are US citizens.

:scared:

[windoe]

6. Whether is it 26.000, or 5,000, or just one,

these sadists must be stopped. Torture provides sadomasochists a valid existence, plain and simple. The benefits are a complete fiction.

These are very dark personalities, and few people want to even think about their existence, but they are being enabled and given a paycheck in this horrible regime----WITH OUR TAX DOLLARS.

[Twist_U_Up]

8. Hitler,Bush..Same shit, different asshole.